Tag: upgrades

Construction and materials were leading the gains in early deals, with Lafargeholcim up by 2 percent. The stock was upgraded to buy from underperform by Bank of America. There was also some momentum in personal and household goods due to stock upgrades. The U.K. housebuilder Taylor Wimpey rose 3.4 percent and led the gains across Europe. Renault shares were under the flatline too after news that former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn was indicted on two new charges of financial misconduct.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.2 percent with almost every sector in positive territory. Construction and materials were leading the gains in early deals, with Lafargeholcim up by 2 percent. The stock was upgraded to buy from underperform by Bank of America.

There was also some momentum in personal and household goods due to stock upgrades. The U.K. housebuilder Taylor Wimpey rose 3.4 percent and led the gains across Europe.

The Swiss company Straumann was also among the top gainers, after its CEO said that it wants to increase sales five-fold within a decade, Reuters reported.

On the other hand, Orion dropped more than 6 percent after Jefferies cut its grade on the pharma company. The research firm argued that the current 4.5 percent dividend yield is not enough to support the share price, Reuters reported.

Furthermore, Flybe fell as much as 90 percent after a consortium of Virgin Atlantic Ltd, Stobart Group and Cyrus Capital Partners agreed to buy the low-cost airline.

Renault shares were under the flatline too after news that former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn was indicted on two new charges of financial misconduct.

Netflix shares jumped as much as 3 percent in Friday’s premarket after multiple analysts upgraded the video-streaming giant. Raymond James’ Justin Patterson upgraded the stock to strong buy from outperform. He also hiked his price target on Netflix to $450 per share from $435, implying a 38 percent surge from Thursday’s close. “After six months of stock underperformance & key debates emerging about competition, margins & [free cash flow], we think these debates are better understood by investors

Netflix shares jumped as much as 3 percent in Friday’s premarket after multiple analysts upgraded the video-streaming giant.

An hour before Friday’s opening bell, the stock was up 2 percent.

Raymond James’ Justin Patterson upgraded the stock to strong buy from outperform. He also hiked his price target on Netflix to $450 per share from $435, implying a 38 percent surge from Thursday’s close.

“Netflix is approaching a profit inflection,” Patterson said in a note Friday. “Coupled with positive app/search data and a solid content slate, we believe there is an upward bias to 2020E Revenue and EPS.”

“Given underperformance in 2H18, vs. traditional media, we believe the combination of positive revisions and emerging signs of long-term profit potential will yield share price outperformance,” Patterson added. He also noted the high viewer numbers from the movie “Bird Box,” and pointed to “Netflix’s advantages in film; convenience, cost, and global distribution.”

Netflix also received an upgrade at UBS after the bell on Thursday, with analyst Eric Sheridan hiking his rating on the stock to buy from neutral. Sheridan also raised his price target on the stock to $410 from $400, implying a 26 percent upside.

“After six months of stock underperformance & key debates emerging about competition, margins & [free cash flow], we think these debates are better understood by investors and reflected in the current stock price,” Sheridan said in a note. “With content spend now at a scale of the major media companies and titles continuing to demonstrate outsized marketplace success, we see the moat around NFLX’s global positioning widening and its long-term secular winner status remaining intact.”

The upgrades from Raymond James and UBS come after a massive surge in Netflix. Since Dec. 24, the stock is up more than 38 percent.

Netflix has also outperformed the other members of the popular “FAANG” trade, which is made up of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet. Facebook is up more than 16 percent since Christmas Eve, while Amazon is up 23 percent. Apple and Alphabet, meanwhile, are up less than 10 percent in that time.

Benjamin Swinburne, a Morgan Stanley analyst with an overweight rating on Netflix, said share prices should continue to rise as the company keeps growing in overseas subscribers. “We believe Netflix’s opportunity comes from the nearly $500bn global TV market, of which total subscription OTT still represents less than 5% of revenues,” he said.

Swinburne added: “The shift toward life as a vertically integrated streaming business is accelerating, evident in a declining level of licensing obligations to 3rd parties and a ramp in spending on originals.This should translate into 1) a deeper moat, 2) greater operating leverage, and 3) meaningful FCF long-term.”

Twitter shares jumped on Thursday after Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgrade the stock, citing increased usage by younger people and more engagement by its current users. Bank of America raised the stock to buy from neutral and took the firm’s price target to $39 from $31. “Nine percent of users indicated they planned to user Twitter more next year, up from 6 percent in our 2Q survey.” “If Twitter can continue to improve engagement and targeting and build out its direct response advertiser base

Twitter shares jumped on Thursday after Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgrade the stock, citing increased usage by younger people and more engagement by its current users.

Bank of America raised the stock to buy from neutral and took the firm’s price target to $39 from $31. The stock was up by more than 3 percent in after hours trading Thursday to $33.45.

“Churn remains elevated, but improving metrics in the 18-29 demographic suggest more younger users are turning to Twitter,” stated the Thursday note to clients, which cited a social media user survey by the firm. “Nine percent of users indicated they planned to user Twitter more next year, up from 6 percent in our 2Q survey.”

Twitter closed Wednesday at $32.25, up more than 30 percent over the last 12 months. Facebook is down more than 20 percent over that same period.

“While Twitter has significantly less time spent per user than Facebook, monetization is also significantly lower than the $25 ARPU Facebook will generate globally in 2018, and $108 in the U.S.,” the note said. “If Twitter can continue to improve engagement and targeting and build out its direct response advertiser base, comps suggest opportunities for significant ARPU increases.” (ARPU is average revenue per user.)

Along with the strong user data, the firm also believes Twitter will be a “strong play” as more advertising dollars go to video ads online.

Bank of America upgraded Intel to buy from neutral on Friday, saying the chipmaker will outperform its large-cap peers in 2019. However, Intel’s growth rate is better than the bank’s core-semiconductors forecast of 1.5 percent, Arya said. Global growth slowdown is a risk but product shortages in late 2018 and replacement demand from aging base of PCs helped Intel avoid excess inventory concerns seen by its peers,” Arya said. Bank of America raised its 12-month price target for Intel to $60 a sha

The bank sees a 2.5 percent sales growth in 2019, a deceleration from 13 percent growth in 2018 on tougher data center comparisons. However, Intel’s growth rate is better than the bank’s core-semiconductors forecast of 1.5 percent, Arya said.

“While the entire semiconductor sector is exposed to a cyclical slowdown, we like Intel’s more attractive exposure to more stable PC, enterprise, networking, and data center markets. Global growth slowdown is a risk but product shortages in late 2018 and replacement demand from aging base of PCs helped Intel avoid excess inventory concerns seen by its peers,” Arya said.

Bank of America raised its 12-month price target for Intel to $60 a share from $52. From its $44.49 Thursday close, the price target will translate into a 35 percent gain.

J.P. Morgan is taking divergent views on two of the biggest U.S. mobile providers. The firm upgraded AT&T on Monday to overweight from neutral and downgraded its better-performing rival Verizon. J.P. Morgan kept its 2019 year-end price target of $38, about 19 percent above its price before the opening bell Monday. Shares of Verizon fell 3.6 percent in Monday while AT&T shares were up 1.7 percent. Although Verizon shares have outperformed AT&T’s, with a roughly 18 percent year-over-year increase,

J.P. Morgan is taking divergent views on two of the biggest U.S. mobile providers.

The firm upgraded AT&T on Monday to overweight from neutral and downgraded its better-performing rival Verizon.

For AT&T, J.P. Morgan managing director and senior analyst Philip Cusick cited recent management meetings in which he got a better sense of how the company plans to cut debt “using organic free cash flow.” Cusick also said weakening video trends are now embedded in expectations.

AT&T Chairman Randall “Stephenson is comfortable that the combination of improved wireless performance, mix shift to media, and better pricing in Entertainment should make 2019 trends markedly better than those in 2018,” Cusick said in a note to clients Monday.

While investors “may need to wait a couple of quarters to see this performance come through,” Cusick said at $31 per share, the risk/reward is “skewed to the upside.” J.P. Morgan kept its 2019 year-end price target of $38, about 19 percent above its price before the opening bell Monday. AT&T’s stock has fallen about 14 percent since this time last year.

Shares of Verizon fell 3.6 percent in Monday while AT&T shares were up 1.7 percent.

Although Verizon shares have outperformed AT&T’s, with a roughly 18 percent year-over-year increase, Cusick downgraded that telecom stock to neutral from outperform.

“As much as we like Verizon’s consistent and improving execution, the combination of a new management team and reporting lines with the run-up in shares make the risk/reward less compelling than peers AT&T and Comcast,” Cusick said.

The firm has a $62 price target on Verizon and sees shares increasing 2.7 percent in the next year. Verizon could see more upside if revenue accelerates, Cusick said.

Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com.

Morgan Stanley is “buying the McDonald’s of the future today,” the firm says in upgrading the fast-food chain’s stock to overweight from equal weight. McDonald’s shares rose 1.4 percent in premarket trading. Glass said “the market is potentially underappreciating” these modernization efforts, and he expects McDonald’s will soon have a “structurally improved” business model. McDonald’s shares outperform the market 60 percent of the time when the S&P 1500 is declining and the CBOE Volatility Index

Morgan Stanley is “buying the McDonald’s of the future today,” the firm says in upgrading the fast-food chain’s stock to overweight from equal weight.

“We are endorsing the notion that McDonald’s massive store modernization efforts, first rolled out in select international markets and now in the US (its single largest market), will begin to pay off in ’19 and should produce best in class sales results for more years to come,” Morgan Stanley’s John Glass said in a note to investors Thursday.

McDonald’s shares rose 1.4 percent in premarket trading.

Glass said “the market is potentially underappreciating” these modernization efforts, and he expects McDonald’s will soon have a “structurally improved” business model. He added that McDonald’s is a key “defensive” stock “during periods of economic slowing.” McDonald’s shares outperform the market 60 percent of the time when the S&P 1500 is declining and the CBOE Volatility Index is rising.

SEC chairman on cryptocurrencies and investing 11:08 AM ET Wed, 6 June 2018 | 14:56Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have been eagerly awaiting the approval of what would be the first-ever bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF. But the man largely behind greenlighting one — Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton — has a few worries that need to be assuaged before he’s “comfortable” approving the investment vehicle. Because most cryptocurrency exchanges don’t use the same monitoring tool

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have been eagerly awaiting the approval of what would be the first-ever bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF.

But the man largely behind greenlighting one — Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton — has a few worries that need to be assuaged before he’s “comfortable” approving the investment vehicle.

The first is a lack of market surveillance.

Because most cryptocurrency exchanges don’t use the same monitoring tools as stock exchanges, Clayton said investors may not get a fair assessment of bitcoin’s price.

“What investors expect is that trading in the commodity that underlies that ETF makes sense and is free from the risk of manipulation,” Clayton said at the Consensus Invest Conference in Manhattan. “It’s an issue that needs to be addressed before I would be comfortable.”

The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq have what’s known as “surveillance,” or systems that monitor, prevent and investigate abusive and manipulative activity on the exchanges.

Part of the reason that automotive journalists and enthusiasts tend to bemoan the ongoing crossover apocalypse is because no one makes a crossover that drives as well as the sharpest sedans. Alfa Romeo, however, has introduced the best effort yet: the Stelvio Quadrifoglio. Just like with the Giulia, Alfa Romeo took a normal Stelvio luxury SUV and dropped a bigger engine, performance suspension, a set of massive brakes and a host of other upgrades to turn the grocery-getter into a canyon carver.

Part of the reason that automotive journalists and enthusiasts tend to bemoan the ongoing crossover apocalypse is because no one makes a crossover that drives as well as the sharpest sedans. Alfa Romeo, however, has introduced the best effort yet: the Stelvio Quadrifoglio.

Just like with the Giulia, Alfa Romeo took a normal Stelvio luxury SUV and dropped a bigger engine, performance suspension, a set of massive brakes and a host of other upgrades to turn the grocery-getter into a canyon carver.

And though the ride suffers because it can be very bumpy, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio has become the best-driving performance SUV ever built.

Most people should still buy the Giulia sedan, though. Let me explain why.

Citi Research upgraded Wells Fargo shares to a buy rating from neutral on Friday, saying the bank has a “clear path to improving returns” with a reasonable valuation. Citi believes this is a good time for investors to buy in to Wells Fargo. “We think [Wells Fargo] should fare well on the credit side; particularly as the lack of balance sheet growth will be a positive attribute when ‘late cycle’ concerns weigh on other names,” Horowitz said. Shares of Wells Fargo rose 1 percent in premarket tradi

Citi Research upgraded Wells Fargo shares to a buy rating from neutral on Friday, saying the bank has a “clear path to improving returns” with a reasonable valuation.

“We see them returning to positive revenue growth in mid-2019, which can serve as a catalyst to the stock as can help drive home the story that the issues are moving to rear view mirror,” Citi’s Keith Horowitz said in a note.

Citi believes this is a good time for investors to buy in to Wells Fargo.

“We think [Wells Fargo] should fare well on the credit side; particularly as the lack of balance sheet growth will be a positive attribute when ‘late cycle’ concerns weigh on other names,” Horowitz said.

Shares of Wells Fargo rose 1 percent in premarket trading from Thursday’s close of $53.56. Citi has a $60 price target on Wells Fargo stock.

BT Group’s outgoing chief executive on Thursday sounded a bullish note about the potential for 5G to create future revenues for the British telecommunications firm. The U.K.’s biggest telecom firm reported an increase in its first-half earnings Thursday and upgraded its guidance for the full year. “I think the business case for 5G initially is going to be about delivering more efficient networks,” BT CEO Gavin Patterson told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday. Auctions where telecom companie

BT Group’s outgoing chief executive on Thursday sounded a bullish note about the potential for 5G to create future revenues for the British telecommunications firm.

The U.K.’s biggest telecom firm reported an increase in its first-half earnings Thursday and upgraded its guidance for the full year. It posted profit before tax of £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) for the six months to end September 30, up 2 percent year-on-year as growth picked up in consumer business.

“I think the business case for 5G initially is going to be about delivering more efficient networks,” BT CEO Gavin Patterson told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday.

“Consumption of data is increasing about 30 to 40 percent a year and to keep up with that and ensure it doesn’t go all into pricing that it’s delivered in more and more better valued services for customers, 5G is a much more efficient way of delivering data.”

5G — the next generation of mobile networks — is a technology that many in the telecom and tech industries are racing to develop. Auctions where telecom companies bid 5G radio frequencies have helped countries raise billions from firms seeking to gain a footing in the space. Italy recently raised a record $7.6 billion through a spectrum auction.

“In two of three years’ time, we’ll begin to see I think new revenue streams — particularly in the B2B (business-to-business) space — being built off the programmable nature of the network,” Patterson told CNBC.

He noted that BT had launched “the first 5G alpha trial in the U.K.” in London’s Canary Wharf site this quarter, and that a full roll-out would happen next year. He said that would make Britain “one of the first countries around the world to be offering 5G services.”